Pirates attack tanker close to India
(Feb  18  2011)

A Russian tanker has escaped the clutches of pirates while sailing close to the Indian coastline.

The incident took place on Wednesday when Novoship’s Aframax ‘NS Century’ spotted three boats, each carrying about six to eight people, approaching the vessel.

The captain started to manouevre while an armed group on board opened fire. The pirates ceased their attack and fled, according to a report from Itar-Tass.

The agency, quoting a Russian trade union, also commented that the alleged attack took place in an area recommended as safe for navigation, near the Indian coast.

courtsey : TANKER OPERATOR

(Feb  18  2011)

A Russian tanker has escaped the clutches of pirates while sailing close to the Indian coastline.

The incident took place on Wednesday when Novoship’s Aframax ‘NS Century’ spotted three boats, each carrying about six to eight people, approaching the vessel.

The captain started to manouevre while an armed group on board opened fire. The pirates ceased their attack and fled, according to a report from Itar-Tass.

The agency, quoting a Russian trade union, also commented that the alleged attack took place in an area recommended as safe for navigation, near the Indian coast.

What Ails Our Maritime Progress 

By

Swayamprava 

India has got a very vast coast line. But in shipping sector India is far behind the other developed countries. Even the tiny countries like Singapore, Malaysia are far more developed than that of India. While sailing with my husband,  I managed to see a few hi-tech ports around the world for example Singapore, Hongkong, Seoul, Pusan, Nagoya, Kobe, Yokohama, Rio etc. After visiting these ports,  I happened to see Paradeep port in my own state Orissa, I felt like screaming .Why our ports are in such wretched condition. Even China is far more developed than India. I visualize certain things which I think will be helpful to the maritime industry. Since Marine world has given us this opportunity to share I would like to share my vision with few questions to the government India, Ministry of Shipping, Directorate General of shipping and Mercantile Marine Department (MMD), will my vision be ever come true and If so when ?

What I saw out there let me describe it. First of all these countries are much more advanced and developed than India. It is because they have huge container depots adjacent to port area to store the transshipped containers, multimodal network is quite organized and optimized. Their governments are giving them free hand and made shipping friendly rules with freehand to shipping companies to develop the infrastructure and port development. Several multinational companies are given to develop their hi-tech ports and in comply with their need. Good salary packages and good working environment are another feature in those ports. The container jetties are fitted with hi tech gantries, the dry cargo ports are fitted with automatic loading and discharging machines and oil and gas jetties are automated and 24 hrs services are available in these ports.

These facts are not unknown to our government or our shipping companies, but still no initiative has been taken so far. Ports like Paradeep and Gopalpur are in crippling stage .What are that roadblock which can’t be removed by our government. Is it environment issue or mere inactiveness of the government? Why can’t they just follow the foot steps of these advanced countries and take initiatives? With our open economy, more and more shipping companies should be given chance to develop the vast coast line into several ports, cargo depots and shipping friendly environments just like that of in Singapore and Hongkong.

Apart from port development and urgent need to revolutionize the entire set up ,what we need a good educational environment to produce world class education in shipping ,and good officers, both in deck and engine side. Apart from this shipping architecture and ample ship yards. Since we have the raw materials, government should give enough freehand to companies to setup ship building yards in India itself. World class dry-docking facilities are an urgent need in India .

In maritime education and training, India leads from the front. But to attract the best brains to teaching sector, the revision in pay structure is very essential. There is a heaven and hell difference between the pay structure and hardly anybody is interested to teach young trainees yet to be officers appearing for Mates and Masters. That disparity needs to be curtailed down to ensure the brains take the charge to impart best of their shipping knowledge. The institutes need to be upgraded with more and more simulators, practical training, and ship in campus, man models etc followed by onboard training by the shipping companies. Government should approve online training facilities to ensure officers appear in exams in time at the same time they can earn. And I hope the problem of shortage of merchant navy officers will be solved.

Apart from these two , I think government should take certain steps to link all the major rivers to ensure inland transport ,which will be very cheaper mode of transport and during monsoon also the shipping industry can run in full swing.

One more thing which, I think, obstructs the growth is environment issues. But the thought about this make me to revolt. Why USA, Singapore, Hongkong are not bothered about their environment issue and that of the sea creatures and the vegetation near the coast. Our government should go with the one point agenda of development not to protect the environment but to develop our ports…..Which is an urgent need.

I had seen the entire process in which the shipping industry revolves around. Development of single port could generate thousands of jobs and could enrich our countries economy. Indigenously built ships in our own shipyards will be much more cost effective and anybody can own a ship .So need for these management companies to run around for ships through out the world. We can do our own chartering, ship insurance, ship breaking, brokerage etc. and man our own people. We have raw materials, we have consumers 100 billion people, we have a vast coast line ,we have number of professionals , what ails us is a little paradigm shift in our thinking and a big initiative from government, I think a great feature will be within our reach in few days…

Note :- This entry was written for the “Proud to be Mariner” contest, which fetched me the second place with a cash prize of Rs. 4000/-

The pride of being a merchant navy officer’s wife……..

by

Swayamprava

As a merchant navy officer’s wife I always love to bask in the glory of my husband. This profession has got enormous influence on me and my household. I owe a lot to this profession and with time I have fallen in love with this profession. You must be thinking why it is so….then here is my story…..

When I got married to a shippy, every body was of an apprehension that they are not good. They travel most of the time, they drink a lot, and they have got all sort of bad habits and their family life is always in rocks. I thought; let me see what is there in store for me.

He just came in my life and swept me off from my feet…foreign tours, flights, hotels, dollars, dresses, jewellery…just name it, it’s there at my disposal……Life was like a fairy tale . The life got filled with all sorts of positive thoughts……Yes money places a vital role in our lives and how vital that money could be, I first time felt in my life. The earning in dollar, every time you multiply to find its value in rupee …hmmmm….just awesome.

Then came the phase, when he joined first time, the ship after marriage. That feeling, that agony, I tasted first time in my life. When he went away I felt that nagging emotional pang. Waiting for days together for a letter to come, a little phone call looked so precious than anything in this world. Then came the phase where I need to join the ship all alone. This is called honeymoon retold. When I reached there I found out, what lies beneath this glamour. The amount of energy, the patience, the way they handle the day to day situations on board, left me awestruck. They are the talented lot who can do all sorts of physical work so also mental work and are capable of running the ship single handedly, without waiting for anybody, just left me spellbound. This fairy tale lives of these officers no more looked to me fanciful. I started leaning to value those hard earned money. We started saving for rainy days.

After a certain point, when he decided to take up the shore job, new avenues of this industry opened in front of me. I could see the multifaceted, multi-dimensional hues of this industry. Its potential really allured me. On board I used to see the work of charterers, the ship chandlers, manning of a ship and running a ship, but at as he took the shore job I could understand the entire thing from cadet training to handling of a ship, from multimodal transport to different surveys, getting a ship and correlated problems and I could more or less understand the way this vast industry is running. I started dreaming about many things.

When he started writing books on shipping I gained the knowledge on Chart work and Navigation, the ship stability and the cargo related fundamentals. When he explained me about the magnetism part I kept on wondering …. ….ship’s magnetic field, earth’s magnetic field then cargo’s magnetic field, the gyro, the magnetic compass…….. it was like huh……… and with so many variables one has to maintain it’s stability and reach the destination in time!…..This whole learning process and in spite of being a house wife I could possess a vision beyond my four walls is just because of this industry and my husband…..Now I hope, we can contribute a lot to this industry, which I adore so much…..

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This one was a entry for "proud to be a mariner" contest.